In Too Deep
by CallMeClandestine
Summary: AU. Those who go through the doors never come back. He warned her, but she didn’t care. She wanted adventure, excitement, an escape. She got it all. SasuSaku.
1. Goodbye

**A/N:** So, here's my first attempt at a SasuSaku fic. Yes, it's AU. Yes, the chapters will be pretty short. Yes, it will probably be confusing at times. It's all intentional, i swear. And any OOCness, well, it might happen. Hopefully not too much though.

**Disclaimer:** Yup, all the characters are in my basement, since Naruto is so totally mine...coughcough. Yeah, I'm a liar.

**Summary:** Those who go through the doors never come back. He warned her, but she didn't care. She wanted adventure, excitement, an escape. She got it all.

* * *

**In Too Deep  
**_1. Goodbye_

"Don't go through the door, Sakura," he warned sharply, training his obsidian eyes on the back of her head fiercely so that she would feel his warning as well as hear it. Her head tipped, pastel hair barely touching her right shoulder.

"But why not, Sasuke?" she asked, voice sincere and interested. "It looks so…exciting!"

"Sakura-"

She spun around on her toes, now facing him with her hands clasped behind her back like a schoolgirl, a marvelous grin on her bittersweet pink lips. "Just look, Sasuke. Come here and look."

She stretched out an arm, and he grabbed her hand with a sigh, immediately causing her jade eyes to spark with pleasure. He allowed himself to be pulled forward, and when he was standing next to her in front of the door, she dropped his hand.

"Just look," she ordered again and she stared into the dark. Up, down, side to side. All dark. "Doesn't it make you just want to jump in? It would probably take you far far away; somewhere better than this."

"Don't do it. You've heard the stories: those who go through the doors never come back."

Sakura giggled cheerfully, and her voice echoed in the empty space before them. "Oh, Sasuke, don't tell me you really believe those stories! There's no proof that they're true. They're just meant to scare little children at sleepovers."

Slowly, she reached towards the entrance, pink-tipped fingers nearing the nothingness, if that's what it even was.

"Stop!" Sasuke gasped suddenly and grabbed her wrist, jerking her around to face him. His grip tightened as he spoke. "Don't be a fool, Sakura. You _know_ that this is a bad idea. Who knows what will happen if you go in there."

Sakura's surprised expression melted back into one of amusement and she raised her free hand to Sasuke's face, resting it against his cheek gently. His narrowed eyes immediately widened, and Sakura grinned.

"Are you worried about me, Sasuke? How sweet of you."

Sasuke dropped her wrist and crossed his arms with a dark scowl, turning his face away from hers. "Hn." Sakura didn't miss the faintest dust of pink splotching his pale cheeks.

"Too cute," she whispered, giggling when Sasuke's jaw twitched irritably.

"Don't act like this is a game or a joke!" he suddenly exploded, shaking her hand off of his face. All signs of embarrassment were erased, instead replaced with bitter rage and frustration. His fine eyebrows were angled dangerously.

Sakura pursed her lips and stood on her tip-toes to make up for the height difference. "It _is_ a game _and_ a joke," she huffed, her eyes glinting in what was no longer enjoyment. For a hushed moment they stared at each other, fighting with their fiery gazes, both unrelenting. Only the echo from beyond the door could be heard, though barely.

_Joke_

_Joke_

_joke_

_joke_

Sasuke made a growling noise deep in his throat. "No it's not."

"Yes, it _is_," Sakura shot back, taking a sidelong glance into the door, longing and desire painted in her eyes.

"Sakura, stop it. Stop looking," Sasuke commanded and shook her shoulders forcefully, lolling her head back and forth, sending pink flying. "You aren't going, it's too dangerous."

"Stop trying to sound like my mother," Sakura spat bitterly, still not looking at him. "I have nothing here, so I have nothing to lose, right?"

Sasuke mumbled something under his breath, and Sakura snapped her head around to focus on his face.

"What did you say?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed and voice low.

"Nothing," he answered stubbornly. His obsidian eyes were piercing through her jade ones, and she knew that she had to make her decision soon, before he made it for her.

"Well," she began in a forcefully calm voice. "Whatever you said, it doesn't make a difference." She raised her eyebrows when he flinched slightly, but continued on. "You can't change my mind, and you can't stop me."

"Sakura-"

"Sorry, Sasuke, but I've made my decision." She backed away, watching as his arms fell limp to his side. "Sixteen years of this…this _life_ has been enough. I want to start over, all over and make my own choices. I want to _live_."

Sasuke opened his mouth and closed it, seemingly struggling for the right words. Finally, he asked, "How do you know this will let you live? How do you know that this will do anything good?"

Sakura shrugged unconcernedly. "I don't," she said simply, "but I might as well try and see what happens. Didn't you once tell me yourself? What's the point of living if you don't try new things, take risks? I'm just following your advice, Sasuke."

"This is a stretch," he scoffed coldly.

"But you're not stopping me," she pointed out matter-of-factly, taking another step backwards, all the while feeling the anticipation, and fear, bubble up in her stomach.

At this Sasuke smirked and shook his head, raven hair dancing about his eyes. "I've learned long ago that that's impossible."

"…I'm glad," Sakura said sincerely. Her eyes closed as she tilted her head in a smile. "I'm glad that you took the time to know me."

And then she couldn't move, and her face was pressed into something warm and solid, and she smelled something wonderful and felt herself being held in place strongly. "Sasuke…"

"You're making a mistake."

"Why are you hugging me?" she asked, ignoring his statement.

"Hn. I don't hug people," Sasuke said into her hair, and Sakura sighed heavily.

"Then what are you doing?"

"I'm just…"

Sakura sighed again, this time pulling herself away. "It's time for me to go."

"I'll come with you," Sasuke announced hastily, but Sakura shook her head.

"You have too much in store for you here to give it up," she said sadly, her heels now only a few centimeters away from the empty void behind her. "It's okay, I'll be okay on my own," she reassured him. "I'm strong."

Her right leg vanished; instead of passing through the door it seemed to be swallowed up by the blackness, completely painted over. Sasuke watched in surprise as her shoulders slowly sunk into the nothingness, followed by the rest of her body until only her face and her toes were left to be seen.

Sakura smiled.

"It feels warm…and calm. I think this is going to turn out to be a good decision. Goodbye, Sasuke. And thank you."

And she was gone, but Sasuke was left with the image of her smiling face imprinted into his memory. He was certain that she could not come back, and that she _would_ not come back. He clenched his hands into angry fists and glared at the darkness that had seconds before swallowed her up.

"You fool," he grumbled, and then closed his eyes and stepped through the door after her.

* * *

**A/N:** So, the rest of the chaps will probably be a tad longer than this, but not much. I'm hoping that the shorter chaps will make me update quicker, though this probably won't be the case. Anyway...review anyone?

And omg, who else is completely loving the latest manga chaps?! They're pretty much the best things ever.


	2. Suffocate and Breathe

**A/N:** Wow, this chap turned out longer than i expected. I'm having so much fun writing this! Although i kinda have a love/hate thing going on with the middle of this chap...it was giving me problems.

**Summary:** Those who go through the doors never come back. He warned her, but she didn't care. She wanted adventure, excitement, an escape. She got it all.

* * *

**In Too Deep  
**_2. Suffocate and Breathe_

His eyes looked so…different, she noticed. He really didn't want her to go. Was it sadness etched in the obsidian orbs? Despair? Anger? Well, of course there was anger, he had already made clear his disapproval of her decision.

'_I'm sorry,'_ she thought just as the veil of darkness, or nothingness, or whatever it was, fell in front of her eyes and Sasuke, her best friend, ally, one-and-only, was forever gone. A pang of sorrow attacked her heart for the slightest of seconds, but all too soon the only emotion she could feel was fear.

She was falling.

It started out in slow motion. Slowly, she felt the invisible ground beneath her give away and she fell backwards in a span that seemed to take hours. Shocking eyes widened and her mouth opened in a silent 'Oh!' as her back arched downwards and her arms floated up above her body. And then time sped up.

And she was falling through the suffocating, thick darkness. She could feel her eyes straining as the pupils grew and tried to pick out any hint of light, but none was given. Sakura screamed; she screwed her eyes shut and let out an ear-splitting shriek, fingernails digging into her palms and stomach seemingly dropping right out of her body.

She realized right away that something was terribly wrong. She could still feel her hair whipping around her face long after she had gasped and spluttered for breath, could still feel the warm, muggy air flying past her as she struggled to control her flailing arms and legs, only to discover that she had no idea which way was actually up and which was down. She was _still_ falling.

Her heart was in her throat, making her breaths come in irregular gasps and shudders accompanied by terrified whimpers. Swallowing past her fear, she opened her mouth and screamed again.

"Sasuke!"

* * *

"Mmph."

Sakura lifted her head slowly off of the grassy ground, groaning at the effort. She opened her bleary eyes and winced at the violent pang at her temples. Letting her head drop heavily back onto the ground she flexed her fingers, curling them around feather-soft stalks of grass and pulling.

"Sakura, what are you doing?"

She froze, heart having skipped an entire two beats, and let her hands unclench. She turned her head to the other side and opened her eyes once more. And she thought that she must have been hallucinating.

"Sasuke…" she said in a cracking voice, unable to stop the small smile that graced her lips when his own raised the slightest at the corners.

"Hey."

"Hey," she repeated back, reaching her hand out to brush loose strands of inky hair out of his face so that she could get a clear view of his eyes. Neither moved nor blinked until Sakura finally asked, "Where are we?"

"The other side of the door, I'm guessing."

Sakura gasped and pushed herself to her knees, throwing an arm out to steady herself as the world temporarily spun itself out of focus. When she regained focus, she cast Sasuke a stern look, to which he was completely unfazed by.

"Why did you come?" she asked sharply, earlier glimmer of happiness at having seen him gone. "I _told_ you not to come."

"Well, it's too late now, anyway," Sasuke told her without much enthusiasm, copying her and lifting himself off of his stomach. Once standing, he held out a hand, which she took with a scowl and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

"That was the stupidest decision you've ever made."

"I could say the same for you," he replied with a strict look, arms crossed authoritatively.

"You already have."

"And I'll keep saying it."

Sakura threw her arms up in defeat. "Okay. Okay. Let's just drop it, please? There's really no point in trying to argue with you anyway. You're too stubborn to give up, after all," she ended by muttering under her breath. Sasuke raised an eyebrow but changed the subject.

"Well then, now what? I wouldn't exactly call this the most normal of places."

"Huh?"

"Look," Sasuke said simply, jerking his chin up slightly, and Sakura turned around and immediately gaped at what her eyes fell upon.

"Whoa…" she said in a hushed breath, taking a step forward. "That's crazy."

A forest seemed to have risen out of the ground and set up its tall, densely packed trees smack dab in the middle of a grassy field. That's how irregular the ruler- straight line of trees looked, their slightly sinister shadows looking very unfit at the edge of sun-drenched bright green grass. Sakura squinted as she tried to make out anything midst the trees, but the forest seemed to be very thick and not much could be seen. She suddenly felt very small standing before the towering mass of bark and leaves, and instinct had her retrace her steps backwards until she bumped into something solid.

"Oh, Sasuke, sorry!" she apologized, but he hadn't seemed to have even felt their collision, instead staying rooted to the spot with his eyes looking at something over her shoulder. Sakura waved a hand in front of his face, and dark, glazed over eyes blinked and snapped to her face.

"What?"

"What were you staring at?" Sakura asked, looking behind herself at the forest and then back at Sasuke's face, noting the still dazed look he was wearing.

"Nothing. I wasn't looking at anything," he answered hastily, though his eyes rose to look over Sakura's shoulder again.

Sakura frowned and said slowly, "Yes you were. You didn't even feel me bump into you. What was it, Sasuke?"

"I said, it was nothing," Sasuke repeated firmly, and seeing the skeptical look Sakura was wearing, he put his hands on her shoulders and said, "I'm serious."

"Fine, whatever." Sakura shrugged out of his hold, thoroughly unconvinced by his statement, but she wasn't in the mood for a futile argument. Instead, she took his arm and began pulling him away from the forest.

"Where are you going?"

Sasuke didn't budge and Sakura let out an exasperated breath. "Um, I'm going in the obvious direction, which is _away_ from the evil forest of death."

"And exactly _where_ will that bring us?"

Sakura hated to admit it, but she could see where his argument was coming from. Since, in fact, all she could see for what looked like endless miles and miles was nothing but grassy green and a stretch of cerulean sky overhead. At least it looked happy, though. She used this as the basis of her argument.

"It will bring us somewhere where there won't be trees and bushes and stuff all around us, so we can actually _see_ where we're going."

"If there really is anything to see," Sasuke added, and Sakura was really getting annoyed with his negative attitude. Really, how could he see going into a gloomy, possible never-ending forest as a plus?

"Well, if you don't like it, look at the clouds. Make them into shapes or whatever."

And she started walking.

But her brisk pace didn't last long.

Because she _appeared_ to face-plant into, well, nothing. She stumbled backwards, holding her nose and stringing together a chain of well chosen curse words which she gushed in a rather loud volume. Behind her, she heard Sasuke snigger rudely.

"What the hell was that?" he asked sardonically, and Sakura spun on her heel and sent him a glare, rubbing her nose tenderly.

"Shut up. I don't-"

"Sakura," Sasuke cut her off in a raised voice, and he raised a hand to point behind her. She narrowed her eyes at him but turned around nonetheless, and her hand dropped in surprise.

Where there was once thin air, skeletal tendrils of a shadowy color seemed to be snaking out from a single point, the place where Sakura's face had collided with the invisible wall of matter. The lines twisted and froze in jagged angles, and then the sound of breaking glass filled the stunned silence as shards of green and blue -the grassy background- fell to the ground and shattered into a shiny dust that was swiftly picked up and blown away by an indiscernible breeze. In its place was another sharp line of trees and sinister shadow.

"What…"

"A forest," Sasuke supplied not-too helpfully.

"I can _see_ that," Sakura said, trying to force annoyance into her voice but only able to produce a tone of nervous amazement. "But…what _was_ that?"

And this time Sasuke didn't have an answer for her.

Sakura looked to the left and then the right, down the only stretch of non-forest left, sandwiched between the parallel lines of ancient trees. "Um…"

Sasuke sighed, not even trying to hide his irritation. "Yes?" he asked moodily, and Sakura frowned at his attitude.

"God, Mr. Negative. If you're going to act like that, why don't _you_ decide where we're going then?"

"Tch, figures."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "What figures, Sasuke?"

"That you get us stuck in some situation like this, and then have to rely on me to fix it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked slowly, hands on her hips and eyes on his. She tilted her head as if to say, 'What's the big deal? Scared to say?'

Sasuke laughed humorlessly. "You're really not intimidating, so stop trying to be."

"…Why are you being such a jerk?" Sakura asked in a hushed voice, her narrowed eyes widening and her eyebrows losing some of their severity. "This is the reason I left, so I wouldn't have to deal with people treating me like some stupid little girl, but here you are, doing exactly that. Thanks Sasuke, thanks so much."

And for some reason, the corners of her eyes stung painfully and when she blinked she felt a hot tear trickle down each cheek. "W-why am I crying?" she stammered as she wiped the tear tracks away, but they were only replaced by more. "Why am I crying? No, I don't cry, this isn't right."

It was almost frightening. One minute she had been angry and annoyed, and the next a terrible feeling of helplessness had washed over her before she had even had time register it. And the worst part was that deep inside, she didn't know why she felt so incredibly helpless, and she knew that she had nothing to cry over. It was embarrassing. It was like she suddenly had no control ever her emotions.

Sasuke stood temporarily shocked by Sakura's lamentation, the sneer having dropped off of his face, replaced by an expression of guilt. "Sakura…" But he didn't know what to say, he had never been one to console people, he was out of his element.

"No. No. It's nothing, I'm fine. I don't even know _why_ I'm crying," Sakura told him in a rush, plastering a forced smile onto her face that quivered at the corners as more tears fell unrestrained across her porcelain skin. She wiped away the salty liquid with clumsy hands.

Sasuke looked down at the ground in shame, his voice unsure when he muttered, "I'm sorry."

"No, you're right. I'm hopeless. I said we were going that way," she pointed cheerily at the woods, her tears beginning to dry up, leaving her jade eyes watery and tinged with pink. Sasuke looked at her with dark eyes that spoke of how he saw through her, through her imitation happiness and plastic smile. Sakura pretended that she couldn't tell, but something inside of her ached when she saw the disappointment in his face as he walked past her, into the shadows and into the trees.

"Do you still think this is such a good idea?" he asked under his breath as he passed, averting his gaze from her face that immediately fell.

"You didn't have to come," she murmured back in an attempt to sound defiant, but as she fell into step beside him she bit her lip, trying to ignore the unwanted uncertainty that was beginning to plague the deepest recesses of her mind.

* * *

It was suffocating. Dark. Ominous. The only light, which was scarce, came in uneven patches through the tree tops as the leaves blew from some overhead wind. The sound was anything but calming, and when there was no sound at all it was even worse. At one point Sakura had heard a thundering snapping noise ahead of her and had shrieked and grabbed onto Sasuke's arm, holding on so tight that it was a wonder that his own arm hadn't fallen off from her grip.

He then told her that he had stepped on a twig, and that she was behaving like a five year old, and she grumbled that he was an uncaring ice cube, which he deemed too childish to respond to and instead kept walking.

She wasn't scared, she had told him in defense, only surprised. She glared daggers at his back when he had the audacity to exhale an almost silent laugh.

She was the first to see the light, and proclaimed it with a loud shout of, "Sasuke, look! That has to be the way out!" She ran up to him and grabbed his arm, this time making sure not to strangle it, and shook it back and forth in excitement.

"Calm down, I already saw it," Sasuke told her, but she didn't miss how his tone had lost some of its earlier scorn. She took his hand in hers and started running, slow at first because of his reluctance, but soon he was the one ahead of her, pulling her faster than she could run and sending a searing pain up her side as she forced her legs to keep up.

And then they were in the light and Sakura was blind, having to screw her eyes shut against the radiance that was daylight until her pupils could take the brightness. And once she could open her eyes again she took a deep breath and was shocked to feel so light and free, as if some blanket had been weighing her down and crushing her slowly the whole time she had been in the forest.

"Do you feel it, Sasuke?" she asked him, dropping his hand to smooth her wind-swept pink locks out of her face, her fingers getting snagged in the tangles.

"Yeah. Look."

She shifted her eyes in the same direction as his and raised a pastel eyebrow at the structure before them. A house, lavender in color with a wooden roof and brick chimney, stood twenty yards away, a wooden door on the wall facing them.

"That's strange, I wonder if anyone lives there."

Sasuke looked puzzled as well. "There's only this one house, in the middle of nowhere. Who would live here?"

"Dunno. It's sure better than in that forest though."

"…Come on."

"Sasuke, wait! What are you doing?"

Sasuke tilted his chin and looked over his shoulder at her, giving her a plain look. "Checking to see if anyone's home."

Sakura's eyes widened and she ran up to him, stepping in front of him and stretching out her arms as a barrier. "Sasuke, you can't just go up to a random house and knock on the door!"

Sasuke gave her one of his 'looks' and said with a smirk, "Yes I can," and before Sakura knew what had happened Sasuke had gotten around her and was pounding on the door, shouting, "Hey. Anyone there? Open the door."

By the lack of response Sakura guessed that the answer was no, nobody was home. Something peculiar caught her attention and she said to Sasuke with furrowed brows, "There are no windows…"

Sasuke grunted and pounded his fist against the door once more, and then giving up on that tactic he grasped the rust-splotched doorknob and twisted it. To his surprise, and Sakura's as well, the knob turned easily. When Sasuke met her eyes, Sakura shook her head frantically and hissed, "Sasuke, what if someone's in there?"

Sasuke shrugged and pushed the door in anyway, and despite her warning Sakura inched behind Sasuke and peered over his shoulder into the house. When her eyes fell upon the figure in the middle of the room she gasped and tightened her fingers into the back of Sasuke's shirt.

There was a wooden table and four wooden chairs of the same dark brown, once of which was occupied by a young man with one of the most ridiculous looking haircuts Sakura had ever seen. In his hands was a mug, poised halfway between the table and his face. He gave the two intruders a very befuddled stare and raised one of his impossibly thick eyebrows so that it disappeared behind his glossy, dark hair. When he opened his mouth he paused for a moment before asking tentatively,

"Can I help you?"

* * *

**A/N:** Guess who! It's pretty obvious. And next chap will explain some stuff from this chap, since everything that happens happens for a reason. There's a method to my madness, really.


	3. Perfect Stranger

**A/N:** Yeah, it seems like my writing time is being stretched very very very thin these days, as i have to concentrate more on school-related stuff, and other stuff, lots of stuff. As you can see, i'm making excuses for my horribly slow updates, hehehe. Which i doubt will get faster any time soon. I have not edited this chapter very carefully, so if you catch mistakes, feel free to point them out. Other than that, hope you like!

* * *

**In Too Deep  
**_3. Perfect Stranger_

Sakura stood dumbfounded, blatantly staring at the equally surprised man sitting before her and Sasuke. He had asked if he could help them. She wasn't quite sure what the answer was.

"Um…"

The man Sakura assumed was the owner of the house put down the mug he was holding and sighed tiredly. "Please close the door."

Now what kind of request was that? Sakura's mind immediately went into panic mode; was he going to trap them and take their money? She then realized that her pockets were empty, and if Sasuke had come as empty handed as she had, then they were completely broke. Which meant that he could get mad and kill them! She wrapped both her arms around one of Sasuke's and tugged backwards.

"Come on, Sasuke. I think we should go," she said in a lowered voice, eyes darting between the strange sitting man and the forest visible outside.

"Oh no, you misunderstand! I was merely hoping to keep out the Slinks! They tend to wander their way into my house if I leave the door open for too long."

Slinks? What the hell was he babbling about? Sakura was growing more uneasy by the minute; she really didn't feel up for dealing with a crazy man. She opened her mouth to announce one more time that they were leaving, but Sasuke spoke up for the first time since entering the house.

"What's a Slink?" he asked, suspicion evident in his low voice. Sakura shot a warning glare at the back of his head, which he obviously did not see, and then pulled on his arm again.

He turned to her with a curt, "Sakura, stop it," before focusing his attention once more on the other man. The pinkette scowled but bit back the start of an argument, and settled for leering over his shoulder at who she had unconsciously named Bowl Head. It was either that or Caterpillar Brows, and the former had a nicer ring to it, she thought.

"Oh, you do not know?" He looked rather confused, as though this Slink thing was something everyone knew about.

"We're…not from around here," Sasuke told him cautiously. The look in Bowl Head's eyes made Sakura very nervous, but thankfully it passed and he smiled in an understanding way.

"Ah, I see. Travelers, I assume?"

Sakura nodded on instinct, and Sasuke grunted a confirmation.

"Makes sense. Well, Slinks… what is the best way to describe them? Basically, they are light."

"Light?" Sakura sucked in a breath. The word had tumbled out of her mouth before she had had a chance to think about it, and her tone hadn't been too kind either. More like unimpressed and disbelieving. Really though, if they were light, they would already by inside the house because the door was open! He had to be playing mind games on them.

Bowl Head shook his bowl-shaped head. "No, no, that is not quite right. They are like orbs of light that are found in the forest, when the forest is there. They lure people after them, those who are lost and desperate to get out of the dark. But the Slinks only bring them farther into the forest. They do not cause people harm, but they do not bring any good either."

Sakura was speechless. She thought it was a load of baloney, magical orbs that bring travelers to their dark doom. It sounded like something out of a children's fairy tale. Sasuke, however, seemed more enthralled with the story than she was (and she found this quite surprising), because his next question was very serious.

"What do you mean, 'when the forest is there'?"

"I mean when the forest is there, and not when it is not. And since it is in fact right there," he motioned out the door, "I would appreciate it if you would close the door behind you, because the last time I got a Slink in here, it took me a good hour to lure it back out."

Sakura blinked. Sasuke was speechless. Bowl Head tipped his head to the side and asked concernedly, "Is anything the matter?"

Sakura was sure that he was absolutely insane by now, and pleaded a little more desperately with Sasuke. "Sasuke, come _on_, please. I don't like this, he's nuts. He's making it sound like we're in freaking Fairytale land!"

"Fairytale land? Is that where you are from? I've never heard of it before, is it a nice place?" Bowl Head interjected, ignoring her insult deafly.

"No, we're not from Fairytale land," Sasuke spoke up, and then looked at Sakura over his shoulder. "It's fine, close the door, he won't stop asking if you don't."

"What?! Sasuke, do you understand what you're saying? He's-"

"Sakura." He turned around and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking into her face with a somber expression. "He's telling the truth about those Slink things, I saw one before we went into the forest. They're real."

"Why would they not be real?" came Bowl Head's voice from the side. Sakura ignored him completely.

"Sasuke," she began slowly. "Do you understand the situation? We do not _know_ him. He wants us to close the door so that we are in here _alone_ with him. There are no _windows_, therefore it will be very _dark_-"

"I can turn on a light, if you would like."

"-and most of all…" here she took a deep breath and was silent for a long minute.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Most of all what?"

Looking down, Sakura muttered, "I don't know." She heard Sasuke's frustrated sigh and prickled in anger. She pushed his hands off of her shoulders roughly and whispered something under her breath.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura raised her head and narrowed her eyes at him. "Stop treating me like a little kid."

Sasuke frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm doing no such thing."

"Yes you are!"

"How, then? Tell me how I'm treating you like a child."

"You won't listen to me!" Sakura shrieked, fists balling. "You won't listen to a single word I say, you ignore me completely! You act like everything I suggest is stupid-"

"The only reason I'm not listening to what you say is because it _is_ stupid," Sasuke cut her off with a dangerous growl in his voice. Sakura gasped, but instantly regained the deadly gleam in her jade eyes and splotches of red in her cheeks.

"Oh, fine then, I get it. I get it fine, Sasuke. Feel free to have your little tea party with your new friend over there." She gestured at the other man who they had been blatantly ignoring; his eyebrows were lost in his hair as he watched with amusement. "But since I'm not really feeling the welcome, I'll be outside."

She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she turned and headed for the door, a part of her feeling slightly hurt when she didn't notice Sasuke trying to stop her. She crushed the pain immediately. She _wanted_ to get away from him anyway.

Once under the doorframe, she gripped the knob tightly and debated whether or not to turn around and see how the two behind her had reacted. Her pride wouldn't allow her to in the end, so she let go of the metal and stepped through the door, slamming it closed behind her with vigor, a guilty feeling of pleasure in her gut.

* * *

It hadn't taken long for dusk to come, turning the sun's light to a deep gold and stretching dark shadows out over the ground. Sakura was sitting with her back to the door, eyes fixated on the gloomy forest ahead, trying to pick out any hints of light, Slinks. Of course, and with a twinge of annoyance, she saw nothing besides trees. She was so _bored_.

She let her head loll to the side, immediately squinting and sitting up straight since, by moving her head, the tops of the trees were no longer blocking the sinking orb in the sky. She let out quiet groan of frustration.

The voices inside had stopped around what she estimated to be ten minutes ago. Sasuke and the stranger had spoken in low, unintelligible voices for the better part of her stay right outside the door, and the sudden quiet unnerved her a bit. She contemplated standing up and opening the door, just to make sure everything was fine, but then the sound of Sasuke's voice reached her ears.

She shifted carefully and flattened an ear to the smooth wood, focusing on the voice she knew so well on the other side of the barrier. She was sure she made out the words "stubborn" and "immature" among the stifled speech. The sound of unfamiliar laughter followed soon behind. She assumed it was Bowl Head's.

The concern flooded away in an instant, and Sakura positioned her back against the door once again, arms crossed and face scowling. "Stupid," she murmured under her breath. Her stomach growled. She told it to shut up.

Her attempt to sulk in peace was abruptly interrupted as the door was pulled open and she fell flat on her back. Staring down at her with onyx eyes showing no emotion was Sasuke.

"Um…hi?"

"There's some food on the table if you're hungry," he told her flatly, "I already ate." As he headed away, he said over his shoulder, "And we'll be staying here for a while."

Stunned, Sakura pushed herself to her feet and called after him, but he disappeared around a corner into a deeper part of the house. She frowned at the bare wall.

"Um, would you like to eat?" came a tentative voice, and Sakura's eyes landed on Sasuke's outlandish haired new 'friend.' He was standing behind a chair at the table, watching her with round, kind eyes, clearly inviting her to sit down.

Sakura, however, was still feeling obstinate. "No thanks," she muttered, and headed back outside to sit in a warm patch of sunny grass. She brought her knees up to her chest and wallowed in her thoughts.

Sasuke. What was his problem? She felt like he was leaving her in the dark, spending a good hour with a perfect stranger talking about who knows what, and then suddenly telling her that they were going to _live_ with him for a while. And then ignoring her again! How rude. The depressing part was that she knew that she couldn't really do much about it, she _knew_ she couldn't just leave because she feared being alone, but she had also always been wary of strangers, so the situation made her uncomfortable.

Something about her thoughts made her feel guilty. She claimed to be afraid of being alone, and yet when she had first gone through the door she had told Sasuke not to follow her. Then, when she woke up and his face was the first thing she saw, she had been at first happy, and then angry because she depended on him always _being there_ too much.

When he was around she wanted him to go away, when he was gone she wanted him to come back. It was hopeless. _She_ was hopeless, never able to make a decision without his input, like he had so kindly told her.

She groaned and rubbed her hands over her eyes, stretching the skin on her face in irritation.

"Excuse me?"

The voice made her jump, and a small gasp escaped her lips.

"Sorry! I did not mean to surprise you."

"Oh, no, it's okay." She recognized Bowl Head's voice as his shadow grew beside her until he was standing next to her.

He sat down slowly and asked, "How are you feeling?"

Sakura shrugged, heart beating normally again. "Fine, I guess." _Lonely_.

He seemed to hear her thoughts and said, "Do not worry, once the forest is gone you will feel much better."

"Ah." She pretended to understand, not enthusiastic about burying herself in another mind boggling explanation of things that made no sense, but her company seemed to be able to see through her mask.

"The forest makes people have different emotions that they normally do," he explained slowly. "It makes reserved people outspoken, kind people a bit ruder, and usually makes rude people ruder as well. It is like a stressor in a way, I hope that helps you understand."

She smiled faintly. "Makes sense."

"I am glad. Here, eat." He pushed a bowl of some thick stew into her hands. The smell was enough to make her mouth water, and the porcelain was a comfortable temperature against her hands.

"Thanks," she said, and tasted a spoonful. "It's good." All pretense of not being hungry were gone as Sakura eagerly devoured the food, glad that she received no strange glances because of her impolite behavior.

"I am Lee, by the way."

Sakura paused with her spoon in the half empty bowl. "Sakura."

He smiled, brilliantly white teeth shining. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Sakura."

She couldn't stop the smile spreading over her face, a result of his kindness. "Likewise."

She finished the rest of her stew slowly, savoring the flavor, as well as the comforting silence around the two of them. Maybe she had misjudged him. Maybe he was a perfectly kind person. Maybe she would like it here, wherever here happened to be. There were so many maybes, she was beginning to get lost in thought again. It was only when Lee stood up that she realized that he had still been sitting there, silent as a stone.

"Well, I am going to go inside. Come whenever you would like, and I would be happy to show you around."

"Okay."

He hovered over her for a second before retreating back to the house. After she was sure the door was closed, Sakura placed the bowl next to her and lay down on the grass, hands behind her head.

She felt so calm, and her eyelids were beginning to get heavy. The forest didn't seem quite so menacing only a few yards away, and thoughts of Sasuke didn't trouble her any more. She was content, and the feeling was like a drug to her. She couldn't recall many times in her life when she had been completely content, and it was because of this that she could already feeling herself growing attached to the peaceful little house and the grassy field it was perched on and the strange yet welcoming inhabitant inside its walls.

"I think I like this more than home."

* * *

**A/N:** So there's this button in the bottom left hand corner. Some say it's gray, others say it's purple. Personally, i think it's blueish gray. But none of that matters, because no matter the color, if you push on it, cool stuff happens. You know you wanna push the button. And then review, yes?


	4. Confrontation

**In Too Deep  
**_4. Confrontation_

She hovered in the doorway uncertainly, one hand on the frame as she stared silently at the figure lying on the bed, his back to her. If he was asleep she didn't want to wake him, but she felt like she had to say something. Make a small amends before the day was completely over.

"Sasuke…"

His shoulders stiffened an infinitesimal amount, only enough for her and her alone to notice. But he didn't turn over or speak. Sakura smiled sadly and spoke her next words to the floorboards.

"I know that you're angry with me because… well because you think I'm stupid-"

"I don't think that you're stupid."

Sakura didn't look up, but continued in the same forlorn voice. "You made it pretty clear that you do. But that's not what I came here to say," she said quickly, before he could interrupt and begin another argument. "I just wanted to say goodnight. So, um, yeah… 'Night Sasuke."

She turned to slip down the short hall to the living room, which is where she decided she would be sleeping since Sasuke had pretty much claimed the only guest room. She heard the mattress springs squeak before she could take two steps, and then Sasuke spoke up.

"Wait, Sakura."

She peeked over her shoulder. "What?"

He was sitting on the edge of the bed, body cast almost completely in shadow. The only light in the house was coming from a lamp in the living room, and the guestroom, being at the very back of the house, received a minimal amount of its light.

"I don't. I don't think you're stupid."

She knew it was his way of saying sorry, but was disappointed that he couldn't just _say_ the actual words.

"Yeah, okay." He didn't stop her from walking away this time. She passed by Lee's bedroom door with inaudible footfalls and switched off the lamp when she reached the living room. She managed to only stub her toe once in her blind search for the couch.

* * *

The next day passed in a blur for Sakura. From her first steps outside in the morning ("Oh my god, what's going on? Lee! Why's there a lake where the forest is supposed to be?!") to lunch by the vegetable garden Lee grew behind the house's back wall ("Is that…a flying _squirrel_ in the garden?!" "…Have you never seen one before?") to the three strangers that rode up to the house on horseback in the middle of the day ("Hey, Lee, what do those weird people want?" "They are traders. If you want, I could buy some windows from them.") Sakura was barely able to keep track of all the events that seemed to fly past.

It was only a few hours before sunset when Sakura was finally able to just sit down on the grass in front of the house and let her mind drift sluggishly over memories of the day.

At first, the appearance of the forest-swallowing lake had frightened her, but Lee had finally been able to explain to her that the surroundings around the front of his house were different every day (the plains stretching out behind his house were always there, apparently). He had said something about the forest appearing once every fifteen days; Sakura wasn't sure if she actually believed him, or if she was just letting her mind accept it because there was no better explanation she could come up with.

She gazed tiredly at the calm water shimmering in the afternoon sun, some of the small ripples on the surface caught the light and reflecting it into her eyes so that she saw spots when she blinked. Her eyelids were so heavy; she had barely slept the night before, since there were too many things racing through her mind and making her restless. With a jaw-cracking yawn she let her eyes close, and her head flopped down on the soft grass with a dull thud.

She rested a hand on her forehead and took a deep breath, exhaling it with a gratifying sigh. The sun felt so nice.

The traders, as Lee called them, had appeared in the heat of the day on horses with saddlebags packed with who knew what. Sakura had watched curiously as Lee had gone up to them and asked them if they had windows available. They had said that they would come by the next day with four, and then left.

"They're just going to bring you windows?" she had asked skeptically. "Where do they find them? And how are you going to actually put them into the walls?"

Lee had shrugged. "It should not be too hard to do," he had replied simply, and Sakura nodded slowly, not quite convinced but not about to say anything more.

"You really don't need to go through all this trouble for us, you know."

"Oh no, it is no trouble at all. I believe that windows would make a wonderful addition to my house," he exclaimed happily, and then remembered that he hadn't asked Sasuke what he wanted for lunch and ran inside.

Sakura felt her lips stretch into an amused smile at the memory; Lee was so strange.

"What are you smiling at?"

Sakura felt her face being enveloped in shadow so she opened her eyes to stare up at the figure standing above her. Sasuke stared back down at her with a blank expression and crossed arms, an ethereal border of light lining his form.

"Nothing. You're in my sun, move," Sakura whined, batting at Sasuke's legs lethargically. A small smirk played across his mouth. "Stop smirking at me, jerk face," Sakura said, her voice holding no malice at all. Her arms dropped heavily above her head, and Sasuke nudged one with his foot.

"What are you doing?"

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "Lying down. On the grass. It's kinda obvious," she said wearily.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Let me rephrase that. _How_ are you doing?"

"Tired." She raised an eyebrow when Sasuke kept looking at her like he expected her to continue. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I was just wondering," he said and sat down to her left, his shadow shifting over her as he did so. He propped one leg up and rested his arms on his knee.

"Oh. Okay."

"Are you done avoiding me, then?"

Sakura's heart jumped into her throat at the casual question, but she tried to keep her expression neutral. "What do you mean, avoiding you?"

"You haven't said anything to me all day. You only do that when you're mad," he said matter-of-factly.

"I haven't been avoiding you, Sasuke. I've been busy spending time with Lee. Outside. You know, where the fresh air is." She turned her head to frown at him. "Don't go thinking that the world revolves around you."

"I never said that." He didn't seem greatly bothered, and Sakura noted that his eyes had a sort of glazed-over appearance, like he was focusing on something far away that only he could see instead of the conversation.

"But you're implying it."

"All I did was say that you're still upset about yesterday."

She scowled and rolled over to her other side so that her back was to him. She picked idly at some stalks of grass when she muttered, "I'm not mad anymore, so stop bringing it up."

"You're easier to read than an open book, Sakura."

"Whatever," she breathed, and soft tendrils of grass tickled her face.

She heard him sigh. "You're so difficult."

"Look who's talking."

"How am I difficult?"

"Don't get me started," she said with an exasperated edge to her voice. "Look," she began suddenly, rolling over to face him once more. "How about this: you drop this whole stupid argument about me avoiding you – which is totally not true – and I'll stop being _difficult_," she offered, exaggerating the last word.

Sasuke leaned back on his elbows, looking bemused. "What are we, seven?"

"We are settling this diplomatically. How is that immature?" Sasuke opened his mouth to speak but Sakura cut him off. "No, no talking," she ordered and threw a handful of grass in his face. She bit back a grin at the disgruntled scowl on his face and punched his arm lightly. "That's what you get."

"For what?" he asked, completely bewildered, as he brushed the green stalks off of his front.

"For being a grumpy old man." She sighed. "Really, Sasuke, what would you do without me? I mean, sometimes I wonder if you would just die of grumpiness if I wasn't around to lighten you up. I can see you trying not to smile," she added, but fought to sound more irritated than pleased. It took a lot of effort to keep her brows furrowed.

Sasuke shook his head, though there was a glint of grudged amusement in his eyes as he did so. "What would I do without you?" he repeated, smirking at her. "I would definitely have fewer headaches."

Sakura wrinkled her nose at him but didn't rebuke; instead she rested her head on her left hand and let out another sigh. A few strands of pink hair fell across her face, and she blew at them idly, but they fell limply back down to obscure her vision slightly. She heard Sasuke mutter something, and suddenly his hand was on her face, brushing her hair behind her ear in one gentle motion.

She was sure that her heart had skipped a few beats. When she could feel again, there was a tight, almost painful feeling in her ribcage. Her jade eyes flickered to Sasuke's dark ones and she blinked blankly.

"What?" he asked, the maddening smirk still on his face.

"What do you mean what? What was that?" Sakura asked him. She was uncomfortably aware of the way his eyes seemed to be boring into her face, almost as if they were looking for something beyond the flesh and bone. He was analyzing her, and he was enjoying himself.

He chuckled and let his head fall back onto the grassy ground, giving her no answer besides silence as he stared up at the sky. She felt the crease in between brows deepen as she looked at him and resisted the urge to scratch the place on her face where it tingled because of his light touch.

"Fine," she grumbled, bothered by his lack of response. She worked on un-tensing her facial muscles as she averted her gaze from his face to stare determinedly at a fluffy white cloud overhead. It moved slowly in the almost-still sky. The edges of the horizon were just beginning to turn a tinge of violet.

Sasuke's voice intruded on her observations. "You're easy to upset."

Sakura pursed her lips. "And what is that supposed to mean. Are you pointing out something you've just learned, or what, exactly?"

"No, it's definitely something I've noticed before," he said evenly, "I just felt like pointing it out now when you're doing so much to prove my point."

Sakura folded her arms over her chest and bit her tongue. She heard the grass rustle as Sasuke tilted his head to look at her. "I wasn't saying it in a negative way," he amended in the same matter-of-fact way, giving no more emotion to his statement than he deemed necessary.

"Well, you weren't saying it in a positive way either."

"Wouldn't that mean it was neutral; neither good nor bad?" he asked, haughty grin audible in his tone.

Sakura shifted to her side and looked just below his chin when she said, "You tell me."

He was quiet for a long moment, and finally answered, "I wasn't saying it in a negative way."

"Way to be repetitive."

"Are you saying that in a negative way?"

Sakura couldn't help it; she grinned, albeit reluctantly, when she glimpsed up to see Sasuke giving her a pleased look, an eyebrow raised. "Very witty," she responded sarcastically.

"Well?"

"And what would you say if I said yes?"

"I'd say that you just don't want to admit that your answer is no," he said without missing a beat. He moved his hands to rest under his head.

Sakura changed the subject. "Why did you follow me here? Through the door, I mean."

Sasuke's eyebrow rose in a completely different expression, one of surprise. It was obvious that he had not been expecting such a question. "Why?" he asked.

"Because, I want to know. Why did you do it, Sasuke? You had so much back there; you had so much going for you. Money, a promising future…money."

"And you're saying you had none of these things?"

Sakura laughed humorlessly. "You know I had nothing, Sasuke. I had no money, I had no future. My family wasn't even a family, in my eyes. I wasn't risking losing anything."

"What about me?"

"I-" Sakura immediately felt ashamed, unable to meet Sasuke's eyes. She twisted a stalk of grass around her finger subconsciously. "I didn't mean that," she said in a small voice. "I just meant… Sorry…"

"No, I know what you meant. And to get to what I know you wanted to ask: no, I do not regret following you here. Having one's life already planned out, step by step and day by day, isn't quite as appealing as you might think."

"But what if you want to go back? No one ever has before."

"Why would I even think about wanting to go back?" he asked incredulously.

"Because you're sixteen and young and maybe one day you will realize the foolishness of your actions. You'll realize that you were being irrational and that you are now stuck in some crazy, messed up world where nothing is like what you are used to expecting."

"Are you speaking for yourself?"

Sakura looked up, startled, to find Sasuke analyzing her again. She thought about his question, and found herself unable to answer with a concrete yes or no. He seemed to understand from her expression, and gave her the shadow of a comforting smile.

"You really do worry too much. You're here by your own decision, so stop trying to find things to dwell on. Just…enjoy yourself."

Before that moment she had not been completely aware of this other side to her opinions about her daring move to step through the door. Of course, she _had_ been aware of her initial doubts about the strange new world she had found herself in, but once she had grown comfortable with Lee and the surroundings she was in she had assumed that her worries had passed. Evidently, they had not.

"Hmm," she hummed. "You're being awfully optimistic. It's kinda weird." She didn't mention how he had been the negative one in the beginning, when they had been going though the forest.

Sasuke shrugged awkwardly, his shoulders unable to make the correct movement since they were pressed against the ground. Sakura found it amusing and grinned.

"There's grass in your hair," she said. A stray piece of green had gotten trapped in his dark locks when she threw the handful at him. "No, more to the left. Left. Down. More. Right there. Come on Sasuke, it's not that hard."

She batted his hand out of the way and plucked the offending piece of greenery out of his hair. "Really," she sighed, flicking it away.

The look he gave her next confused her. His lips were tensed at the corners like he was indignant at something, yet she could tell that he wasn't mad; there was no anger tangible in the air. His eyes were like liquid onyx – so dark that it was impossible to tell what was hidden in their depths, but magnetic in a way that she knew could be dangerous if she wasn't careful. She had to be careful.

She wasn't sure if it was too late when she caught herself and severed the invisible thread connecting their gazes, forcing her eyes to the ground. Strange, scary thoughts were brewing in her mind; she pushed them back before she was able to hear them clearly. Their faint murmurs still hung over her consciousness like a threatening rain cloud.

She pushed herself to her knees and then her feet, keeping extreme attention on her movements so that these were the only thoughts in her head. She suddenly noticed that her hands were fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, and she forced her fingers to straighten out and smooth out the wrinkles in the fabric.

"Is something wrong?" came Sasuke's smooth voice. Her eyes flickered to his out of habit and years upon years of friendship, and she tipped her head in an innocent smile that she had been perfecting as of recently – it was not something natural and not something she was used to, yet.

"I just realized, Lee might want some help cooking dinner."

With that she turned on her heel, something heavy at the pit of her stomach as she began to walk away.

_Does he…?_

She made herself stop and look back over her shoulder to where Sasuke was still lying on the grass, head resting in his hands, eyes already trained back on the sky.

_No, what am I thinking? There's nothing for him _to_ know. Stop being stupid, Sakura. _

She sighed, long and heavily, and finished her trek back up to the small house on the top of the gentle slope, a long shadow stretching out behind her.

* * *

**A/N:** Seriously, i don't really like this chap. It just doesn't feel quite right to me...but i gave up trying to fix it 'cause i didn't know what to do. I know what i wanna put in the next chap, and i already like it better than this one. Now i just have to get myself to start it...


	5. Before Our Eyes

Thank you to my reviewers! I'm sorry that this has taken so long to update. I'm not going to make a bunch of excuses, just one: school. My muse for this fic (and pretty much all my others) kind of died for a while, and i haven't been able to write a complete chapter for well over a month, i think. Well, until this (thank god it's a four day weekend). Thanks for putting up with my terrible lack of updating. Hopefully this chapter will make up for that! A little bit. Maybe.

* * *

**In Too Deep  
**_5. Before Our Eyes_

The house creaking as it shifted brought Sakura back from the convoluted realm of dreams, and her eyes flickered open. Blurry shapes and colors were all that she could see at first, as the room was cast into a dark gray haze. A thin ribbon of light peeked under the doorway.

She brought a heavy hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes wearily, and slowly the room came into focus and her eyes adjusted to the poor lighting. She pushed herself into a sitting position and swung her legs off the side of the couch, the thin gray blanket pooling around her waist. The house was silent again and she couldn't hear much of anything from outside, besides some faint rustles that she assumed were tree leaves rubbing together.

A yawn suddenly worked its way up her throat and out her jaws, making her eyes water. She rubbed the tears away, and once she could see again she gazed around the small room, taking in the small table and chairs that served as the dining room a few yards off.

With a sigh she rose to her feet, stretching her arms overhead as she did so, and then picked up the blanket that had fallen to the ground. She dropped it in a heap back onto the couch and fumbled with the drawstring on the pine-green flannel pants she was wearing, courtesy of Lee. The were a few sizes too big and always slipped down her hips, so she often found herself retying them, but they were comfortable and much more practical to sleep in than her jeans.

The more she blinked the more colors came into focus, the rich brown of the floorboards and gray-white of the walls. The floor was cool beneath her feet as she tiptoed over to the door, raking a hand through her sleep-matted hair in an attempt to flatten the flyaways. She didn't want to wake anyone else in the house, and now that she herself was awake, she decided that she might as well take a look around outside. She would be the first to see the day's new landscape.

She was blinded the minute she opened the door, for the sun was already high in the sky, and was being reflected off of a large expanse of water that stretched out at the bottom of the slope.

"What in the world," she muttered in awe, squinting down at the marvelous sight and trying to shield her eyes the best as possible from the violent glare.

The rustling she had heard earlier had in fact not been rustling at all. It had been the sound of small waves crashing onto a sandy shore.

It was a beach. Where the lake had been the day before, and the menacing forest before that, was now an endless expanse of rippling, shimmering blue, stretching on and on into the horizon and seemingly disappearing over the edge of the world. An ocean.

The sight was so beautiful that her lips curved into a delighted smile and a short laugh escaped her mouth. She carefully closed the door behind her and walked down the gentle hill, green grass tickling between her toes as she went. Her arms swung haphazardly at her sides as she picked up speed, and soon she was half jogging down the slope. All of a sudden, grass met sand in an all too perfect line, and her feet sank into the soft, warm grains as she came to a stop.

The air even smelled of the sea, or so she assumed, having never actually been to the ocean before. She took in a deep breath, savoring the salty, fresh scent that filled her lungs. It was perfect. Everything was perfect.

She sat down in the sand and wrapped her arms around her knees, and admired the view. Her eyes drifted closed after a while, and she rolled her neck in a circle. It cracked several times, loudly. She could feel the stress rolling off of her in waves, and was a bit surprised to find that she had been harboring so much. She yawned again and leaned forward to rest her forehead on her knees.

The waves came in and went out, their sounds peaceful. In, out. In, out. The corners of her lips lifted into a smile as she listened. Time was unimportant. Here on this beach, alone, she could just sit and _be_. It was such a liberating feeling. There were no expectations to fail to live up to, no reasons to feel ashamed of herself, nothing to fail at. She liked this strange place more and more.

She had the sudden urge to go in the water. She lifted her head out of its nest and her eyes rested on the ocean; it looked so…nice. So sparkly and smooth and cool and enchanting. She stretched out her legs and rolled up her pants until they were above her knees, and combed her hair out of her face. Her toes flexed in the heated sand, and she stood and stepped forward.

The water was tepid, the perfect temperature as it licked her ankles. The waves were small swells, peacefully crashing onto shore and being sucked back out. As she stared out at the vast expanse of water, she found it hard to believe that it had once been a forest, and then a lake. It was impossible, it had to be. And yet, there it was, right in front of her eyes. She didn't understand it, but then again, she supposed that she didn't have to for it to be real. Perhaps that was what made it so magical: not knowing why and how it was real, but just knowing that it _was_.

She had taken a few more steps into the water when she heard a whinny to her right, and she stopped and turned. It was one of the traders from the other day, clomping through the sand on his horse's back. Sakura slowly approached, mostly waiting for the horse to reach her, and shielded her eyes so she could look up at the man.

"Excuse me, are you one of the same guys from yesterday?" she asked, squinting as the sun glared down from overhead.

He just seemed to have noticed her, and turned his head to look back down at her. "Yes," he said simply.

"Where's your friend?"

"Not a friend. He was taken by Her Majesty and thrown in the dungeons. He is gone."

"O-Oh…" Sakura was a bit shocked, and took a step back. As she did so, she was able to more easily look into the trader's face, and what she saw was a bit unnerving. His eyes were blank and gray, focused on her but at the same time they had no existence behind them. His eyebrows and forehead showed no expression, and his voice had been empty of emotion.

"I have brought the windows."

Sakura's eyes snapped away from his face as he said this, and she watched as he dismounted his horse and began to work with some knots that had tied two large, rectangular packages to the saddlebags. Once the rope was loose, he caught the two cloth-wrapped packages and placed them in the sand at Sakura's feet.

"Your delivery. I hope that they are to your satisfaction."

It sounded like those were lines that he said a lot, like they were programmed into his head, as he said them with no hint of concern over whether or not she truly liked the windows.

"Um, thanks. I'm sure they'll be just right." She looked from him to the wrapped windows, and them back up again. "Oh! Um, I don't know what you expect as payment. I could ask Lee for money or –"

"No need," the trader cut in, raising a hand to quiet her. He looked out at the ocean, his gaze far away. Or maybe not, Sakura noted, as he seemed to always look a bit spacey. But then he said quietly, "A storm is coming," and Sakura wasn't sure what to make of it.

"A storm? Are you sure? It looks really nice…" She looked out over the water as well, and all she could see was the blue sky and a few wispy, white clouds.

"Yes, a storm is coming," repeated the trader, and Sakura looked back at him when she heard him mount his horse.

He turned it around with a tug at the reins, and they began to leave.

"Will your fr– Will the other trader guy be alright?" she asked.

He didn't turn around as he answered, very unconcernedly, "I do not think so. But one never knows with Her Majesty."

She watched him leave, standing rooted in the same spot until he became a small speck on the beach. The sun was intense on her shoulders, and her forehead was damp with a sheen of sweat. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, and reached down to grab one of the packages. The fabric was knotted on the bottom, and she could feel two windows inside. It was heavy and large, and she sighed as she hoisted it onto her hip so that she could get a better grip on it.

"What're those?"

Her heart leapt, startled, and she turned. Somehow, Sasuke had made it to the bottom of the hill without a sound, and there he stood, giving her and the parcel in her arms a questioning look. He looked like he had just gotten up: his hair was tousled and his eyes were still glazed with sleep. She felt her heart leap clumsily again, and looked down at the second package at her feet.

"Windows. Help me and carry that one up to the house."

He obliged silently, quickly overtaking her one the trek back up the hill. He was waiting for her at the top, and when she arrived he asked, "When did these get here?"

She dropped her two windows to the ground carefully, next to Sasuke's. "Not too long ago. A trader came." She took a long breath and raised her eyes to the sky. "He said a storm's coming," she said quietly.

"Yes, there is a storm coming, in fact."

Sakura jumped, and Lee passed through the door and came to a stop next to her. She was tempted to complain at him for scaring her, but bit back the words when she saw how intently focused he was on the horizon. She followed his gaze, but once again saw nothing amiss in the bright sky. "Are you sure, Lee?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Yes, I can feel it. I am surprised you cannot. Everything else has." He motioned around them with his arms.

"What do you mean?"

"The animals," Sasuke answered her, understanding coming to him. "There are none."

And it was true. Now that she thought about it, she had not seen a single bird in the sky, nor a squirrel on the grass. Lee nodded gravely. Sakura looked at him, worry in her eyes.

"But it's not going to be anything…big, is it? Just like, you know, a rain storm. Right?"

Sasuke looked at Lee with the same worried questioning look. "Lee?"

Lee shook his head. "No, I am afraid that it is going to be rather large. Look." He jerked his chin up, motioning towards the bottom of the slope. "It is almost as though it can hear us."

"Holy…" Sakura could not finish her sentence. She took half a step forward, and then out of fear took two steps back so that she was slightly behind Lee; she could still see the sea, though. The waters were receding drastically as they all watched, being pulled away into the deep blue but no longer expanding back onto the shoreline. And there was foam, streams of the white stuff swirled into the water.

Sakura was never one for environmental science class, but she was sure she remembered something about foam and receding tides having something to do with tidal waves. Her stomach felt like it had dropped right out of her; a sinking feeling of dread trickled down her body, from her scalp to her toes.

"And I was hoping to be able to put in those windows today," Lee sighed, "I suppose that I will not have a chance quite yet."

"Lee! It's not really a tidal wave, is it?"

"It really is," he said, and Sakura knew it was true. Nothing was impossible anymore. And so she could not bring herself to be truly surprised as the edges of the sky on the horizon faded to dark gray, only very afraid.

"We have to run!" she shouted suddenly. Her legs were already taking her backwards.

Lee looked at her over his shoulder. "I highly doubt that you will be able to outrun this storm."

"But- but then what do we do?!" Something on the rim of the horizon shifted, and the line separating sea and sky rose. "It's coming! Why is this happening, Lee?! What if we die?! What if- what if-" But she didn't know what else to say. Her thoughts were a jumble of sharp fears, incoherent and confusing.

"I do not think we will die," Lee answered, sounding as though there was nothing at all worrying about the impending wall of water that was racing towards them. The sky darkened, and soon there was no more water on the beach; the sand sloped steadily downwards.

It was too much. It was too fast. It was too hard to believe.

"You will be okay, if you want to be."

While a part of her was terrified – her heart pummeled in her chest and her hands were clammy and cold and her whole body felt numb – another part could only watch in horrified amazement as the wave grew and neared. Her world had come to a halt, and this was the end; she stood no chance against a wave that enormous, she hadn't ever even learned how to _swim_, not that that would have helped much anyway. She couldn't run away, and she couldn't protect herself. All she could do was watch, and, according to Lee, _want_.

It was incredible, really, such a massive wall of water. A voice in the back of her head marveled at how wondrous nature was, to be able to produce such a phenomenon. Such a terrible, terrible phenomenon. The morning had been so _beautiful_, had it been taunting her?

Right when she thought that everything might possibly be okay, in every way, life reverted to its old habit of proving to her that no, everything would not be okay.

"Lee, what's going to happen when it hits?" Sasuke asked, coming out of his stunned silence at last. The alarm in his voice only made their doom feel all the more real. Sakura knew that Sasuke wasn't fearless, but he hid his fear well, almost perfectly. The fact that he wasn't even trying to do so now was too much for her.

She needed him to protect her. "Sasuke!"

The wave reached the beach and rose above them. Sasuke twisted around and lunged for her, but she was focused on Lee, waiting for his answer though she knew that it would probably not bring any reassurance.

The roar of the water drowned out whatever Lee said; she saw his mouth move, but all she could hear was crashing and thundering.

She didn't think a multitude of things; her past and memories didn't flash before her eyes. Her mind was stalled, frozen on an image of the beach as it had been no more than an hour earlier. She was still trying to piece together what had gone wrong, but the threads she had been grasping at had fallen away, and now all she could do was wait.

The shadow swept across the grass in less than a second, at the same time that Sasuke wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him, grasping the back of her head with his other hand. Her fingers closed instinctively into his shirt, knuckles white against his back.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and waited for the impact…


End file.
